Category Archives: the boys

The end of a long running title can bring about a few emotions – sadness, disappointment, relief, frustration. If it is a long running title, there is a hope that this has enabled the writer(s) to fulfill their vision. With The Boys, Garth Ennis brings down the curtain on 6 years of the titluar groups adventures / vendetta against the Supes. It was a fitting coda, with Darick Robertson returning for this final issue, and Ennis focussing only the last ‘Boy’. In the end, was it all a protracted Love Story, with Hughie losing love through a tragedy, only to find it again with the ‘enemy’? The very last page was a simple, quite moving image, with a very meaningful few words placed underneath;

‘I found you’

so maybe the story was all about Hughie and his finding closure through finding love again. Before that, there was a scene evoking the first issue where we witnessed Hughie’s loss. This time there was to be no tragedy. There was also closure for readers. The good guy got the happy ending.

In the background of this happy ending, the usual Voight-American shenanigans continued unabashed (though they have inevitably rebranded and are now American Consolidated). With AC working a new angle, Ennis makes it clear that the Supes are going nowhere, their deployment imminent, their re-imaging and rebranding almost complete, as soon as something suitable was found to pass off to the general public, then maybe a new story about a new team of ‘Boys’ would begin. But not here. This was an ending, and a fitting one. So goodbye Hughie, Billy, FotS, Frenchie, M.M & Terror. It was always interesting, though I could have done without Herogasm.

To cap it off, there are some lovely full page portraits of all The Boys at the end. The one of Butcher & Terror was really quite moving, and I don’t know why. Maybe because they looked at peace.

I shall miss The Boys, it was one of the few titles I still bothered with on a monthly basis, and was consistently engaging. It was funny, offensive, sometimes really gripping, and did not take itself too seriously. Even the spin-off series were good on occasion (okay – only the Butcher one in particular). TWLB will miss you, and thanks.

As Garth Ennis puts to rest The Boys (with the finale a few issues away), it is interesting to see elements of Billy Butcher in other work that Ennis has done. If we go back as far as 1995, maybe we see the proto Billy Butcher, and maybe the kernel of the idea that eventually became The Boys?

In ‘The Punisher Kills The Marvel Universe’, the title is probably the most spoilerific spoiler that I have known in comics. The contents are well described by the title. I will not elaborate much more on the plot, merely to say that the (ahem) ‘trigger’ for Frank Castle’s rampage of revenge, is the loss of his loved ones by the actions of Superheroes.

Sound familiar? That’s probably because, if you read The Boys, that is exactly the same scenario that gives Billy Butcher and Wee Hughie their drive and motivation. The main motivation of Butcher, seemingly, is to kill all the Capes, just like Frank.

Frank….or Billy? (It’s Frank -aka The Punisher)

They even look alike;

The Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe is one of those ‘What-If?’ scenarios taken to the extreme. It is funny if you get the Garth Ennis black humour, and his love of putting Superheroes through a metaphorical mincer. He may have even put a superhero through a mincer for all I know. Anyway, this Marvel one-shot is well worth your time.

The ghosts of the Legend’s past rise to haunt him, and in a way so do MM’s- as he catches up with his daughter and finds out much, much more about her recent mistakes than he bargained for. Meanwhile Hughie investigates the recent tragedy and ends up in an unexpected showdown… with Monkey? The bodycount mounts in part two of The Bloody Doors Off.

Still reeling from the events of last issue, Hughie follows his boss to Washington DC, where the US military struggles to throw a ring of steel around the Capitol. Meanwhile, MM’s research finally bears fruit, but with all Hell breaking loose will his discoveries come too late? Billy Butcher goes off to meet his destiny, in the penultimate part of Over the Hill with the Swords of a Thousand Men.

Everything comes to a head at once as Frenchie and the Female take on Team Titanic, Maeve and Annie have a heart to heart and Hughie comes face to face with the reason he joined the Boys in the first place. Vought-American are suddenly ready to parley, but with the White House in new hands and the Homelander’s plans finally kicking in, is Butcher in any mood to listen?

If you are a fan of The Boys, then you will probably be aware by now that the series wraps up with issue #72 (so around a year left to go). But if you are curious how the series may end, some interviews over the last few months have provided a little more insight. From the following interviews;